32 Video Views·Dec 6, 2022
This painting is the 'Adoration of the Kings' painted by Sandro Botticelli and Filippino Lippi in about 1470.
On the right side of the painting, two of the kings kneel. One king bows before Christ, bending to kiss his foot in reverence, whereas the other takes off his crown to show respect to the infant Christ. The third king, dressed in white, approaches with his gift in a golden vessel to the infant. A young man in blue and red hose, removes his hat, cranes his neck to look at the sky. According to the Gospel account, he might be looking toward the star which had led kings to Christ's birth place.
The left side of the painting is packed with a vast entourage of kings, including horses in decorated harnesses. Parts of the crowd are unruly. Near the back of the crowd, a white horse rears his head away from a fight involving his rider, who holds an axe.
The infant Christ is seated on the lap of the Virgin Mary. The figures in the vicinity of the infant Christ talk to each other while others bow or kneel in homage.
The marble bust by Joseph Chinard, a French sculptor, has come to the lab for treatment.
The bust was in great need of cleaning since quite some time
and I suppose it required a request for loan to bump it up in the priorities.
Following an overall examination the work was also viewed under ultraviolet light
which revealed some nice details. It showed where the wax layer was still in place which was applied
at some point over all the surface. The dirt sits on top of the wax layer can be removed much easier
than where the wax layer is missing and the dirt had a chance to actually get ingrained into the
marble surface. The crown who was repaired in 1970 which had missing elements they were replaced
and of course they fluoresced very strongly under ultraviolet light.
Due to time constraint it was necessary to have everyone engaged in the sculpture decorative arts
lab and it became a wonderful collaborative effort with all three conservators cleaning
the sculpture. During cleaning most of the wax layer was removed and in order to protect
the surface from future ingrained dirt it was rather important to apply a new wax layer.
In order to protect the sculpture during transit it was rather very important to have the sculpture
crated in the best way possible and with today's technology we know that double crating is the
best way of protecting a work. So the inner crate requires an interior fit up and we have
two technicians who work endless hours of carving contoured at the foam blocks in order to basically
encapsulate the bust inside its inner crate and then the inner crate riding on the appropriate
amount of foam to serve as a shock and vibration absorber. I was very pleased to see it in Montreal
we're all the more pleased because it does go together with our mandate of showing our
collection broadly throughout Canada or even throughout the world in this case not too far
from home but nevertheless.
